In a world in which a growing proportion of the population spends a growing proportion of their lives online, politicians and policymakers pay far too little attention to digital demographics. 在更加多的人每天在网上花费更加多时间的当今世界，政治人士和政策制定者对于数字人口结构的注目过较少。Governments and research organisations typically measure internet “access”. A 2015 Pew study, for instance, found that 16 per cent of all US adults do not use the internet, a number that included 42 per cent of over-65s but only 4 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds. The European Commission has mapped the EU in terms of how often residents in subregions across different EU countries access the internet. As of 2009, 30 per cent of EU citizens had never used the internet at all. 政府和研究机构一般不会取决于互联网“终端”。

例如，皮尤(Pew) 2015年的一项研究找到，16%的美国成年人不网际网路，这其中还包括42%的65岁以上人群，但只有4%的18岁至29岁人群。欧盟委员会(European Commission)根据有所不同成员国各个地区居民的网际网路次数绘制了欧盟的情况。

截至2009年，30%的欧盟公民未曾用于互联网。Access, however, is just the beginning. Being able to get online does not measure the quality of the experience or the ability to take advantage of it. 然而，互联网终端只是开始。需要网际网路并无法取决于网际网路体验的质量，或者利用互联网的能力。

What we really need to know is how fast and how reliably people are connecting to the internet — and what they are able to do once they are connected. Are they mobile users who have access to strong mobile phone networks, who also have a laptop or desktop to carry out more complicated tasks? Or are they mobile-only users with spotty service, or members of a family or even a village with one smartphone to be shared? 我们确实必须理解的是，人们终端互联网的速度有多慢、有多可信以及一旦网际网路他们需要做到什么。他们是否是可以终端强劲手机网络的移动用户、还有笔记本电脑或台式机来继续执行更加简单的任务？或者他们是只有手机、网际网路服务不稳定的用户，或者是共用一部智能手机的家庭甚至村子的一员？ In a study of technology and learning in low-income families, researchers from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted a survey of 1,200 lower- and medium-income parents in the US with children aged between 6 and 13. They found that 94 per cent of the families surveyed are connected to the internet in some way. But 52 per cent said it is too slow; 20 per cent said their internet had been cut off in the past year due to lack of payment; 23 per cent of families below the median income had mobile internet only, and 21 per cent said that “too many people share the same phone for them to get the time on it they need”. 在一项针对低收入家庭的科技和自学情况的研究中，琼甘兹库尼中心(Joan Ganz Cooney Center)的研究人员对1200对子女在6岁至13岁的美国中低收入父母进行了调查。他们找到，94%的访谈家庭需要以某种方式网际网路。

但52%的家庭回应，终端速度太快；20%回应，过去一年里曾由于欠费而被断网；23%正处于收益中值以下的家庭不能通过手机网际网路，而21%的受访者回应，“太多人共用一部手机，以至于无法取得他们必须的网际网路时间。” These differences affect their children’s ability to get their homework done and to keep up in school. But the effect goes far beyond children. Low- and moderate-income mobile-only families are 25 per cent less likely to use online banking or bill paying than their better connected peers and 14 per cent less likely to apply for a job online. Pew found that one in three job seekers has had trouble entering all the information needed for a job application or submitting the supporting documents required to complete an application. 这些差异影响了他们子女已完成作业以及跟上自学工程进度的能力。但其影响相比之下多达孩子。

与网际网路条件较好的家庭比起，不能通过手机网际网路的中低收入家庭用于网上银行或网上缴付的几率要较低25%，在网上去找工作的几率低出14%。皮尤找到，三分之一的求职者无法成功输出职位申请人所需的所有信息，或者无法成功递交已完成申请人所需的证明文件。Bad tools make it hard to acquire good skills. Digital literacy requires far more than simply knowing how to get online. Do you know where to go and how to get there? Do you understand how to protect yourself from spammers? 差劲的工具使他们很难取得杰出技能。

“数字基础教育”的涵义相比之下不只是告诉如何网际网路。你否告诉去哪里以及如何抵达？你否告诉如何维护自己，不上垃圾邮件的当？ Policymakers have a tremendous opportunity if they can gather more fine-grained data about who is not online and why. The Cooney Center study, for instance, found that 44 per cent of immigrant Hispanic parents do not use a computer at work, school or home, even occasionally — compared with 4 per cent of US-born Hispanics. A digital literacy strategy could work with immigrant organisations both to provide access to computers and teach the necessary digital skills. 如果需要搜集更加多有关谁不网际网路以及原因的更好细致信息的话，政策制定者将获得一个极大机遇。例如，库尼中心的研究找到，44%的西语裔移民父母在下班、上学或在家时不必电脑，甚至有时候也不用于，而在美国出生于的西语裔仅有4%不必电脑。

“数字基础教育”战略有可能对移民的组织尤其有效地，既可以获取网际网路的电脑，也可以教授适当的数字技能。It is important to note, however, that being well-off does not always translate into being well connected. Many of the nearly 42 per cent of elderly US citizens who do not use the internet think it is irrelevant to their lives — when it can help enormously in understanding and addressing health problems, paying taxes and navigating government benefit programmes. 然而，有一点认为的是：富裕并不总是转化成为充分利用网际网路条件。

在近42%的不网际网路的美国老年人中，很多人指出，互联网与他们的生活毫不相干——而实质上，互联网在理解和应付身体健康问题、纳税以及利用政府福利计划方面十分简单。Another Pew study found that even when controlling for all other factors, individuals living with chronic diseases and disabilities are significantly less likely to go online. Government and community efforts aimed at the elderly, the ill and the disabled should therefore be focused more on digital access and literacy. 皮尤的另一项研究找到，即便在掌控其他所有因素后，患上慢性病和身体有残疾的人士网际网路的可能性还是要较低得多。因此，面向老年人、病人和残疾人的政府和社区措施应该在更大程度上注目数字提供和数字基础教育。This is not just about helping individual citizens. The EU’s digital strategy has concluded that if more citizens were digitally fluent, Europe could reduce electricity consumption, improve healthcare, better protect cultural heritage and streamline the delivery of government services. 这不仅牵涉到协助个人。

欧盟数字战略的结论是，如果有更加多公民在数字技能上得心应手，欧洲未来将会减少耗电量、提高医护、更佳地维护文化遗产，并使政府服务的获取更加流畅。If we thought of the digitally poor and uneducated as a distinct social category intersecting others, we would have a powerful new policy lever applicable to a range of social and economic problems. 如果我们把数字穷人和没接受教育的人群视作一个与其他人群空集的有所不同的社会群体，我们将享有一件新的强劲政策工具，可以用来解决问题很多社会和经济问题。

Unlike physical terrain, which is often hard to conquer, the digital world ought to be available to everyone. While policies aimed at equality of digital opportunity cannot transform physical environments, they can transport individuals to a different place. Digital demographics would help us to identify and classify the population of that virtual world. 与往往难以克服的实体地形有所不同，数字世界应当归属于所有人。尽管目的让数字机会公平的政策无法改变实体环境，但它们可以让个人超过一个有所不同的境界。数字人口统计学将协助我们辨识和分类那个虚拟世界的人口。

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